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From early in our childhood, the importance of education is drummed into our heads, by our parents, teachers, and elders. In today’s world, education is of prime importance, the lack of which can cause you huge setbacks in life. You are on the way to success, albeit slowly. Education is an important factor to achieve success, though it is not a compulsory one. There are scores of people who have made it big without any formal education. Will power, perseverance, hard work, and dedication took the place of education, and served the purpose very well indeed.

Here is a list of people who have climbed to the very top of the ladder, with just a little, or in some cases, no education at all. They are all billionaires, and college dropouts. They proved that what matters most in the long run is not your college degree, but good talent, positive attitude, and hard work. All these combined with a bit of luck, will keep you in good stead on the way to success. Hats off to them for daring to think different, and believe in themselves. They surely deserve every bit of the success they have achieved.

Co founder of Microsoft, and co chairperson of The Bill Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates is an American business tycoon, philanthropist, computer programmer, and investor. With an estimated fortune of around $67 billion, he is the second richest person in the world today. He dropped out of Harvard at the age of 19 (1975) to work on his startup company, then called Micro Soft. Today, he remains in Microsoft as a non executive chairman. He has consistently topped the Forbes list of world’s richest people for 13 years.

Amancio Ortega is a Spanish billionaire, and the founding chairman of the Inditex group, best known for its fashion clothing and accessories brand ‘Zara’. With estimated assets of $57 billion, he is the third richest person in the world. Born in abject poverty, he never even saw the four walls of a school. He started as a delivery boy for a textile company. His rags to riches story is an inspiration for many.

Lawrence Joseph Ellison is the co founder and chief executive of Oracle Corporation. With an estimated wealth of around $43 billion, he is the fifth richest person in world, and third richest in the United States. Ellison was an intelligent student, but was inattentive. He dropped out of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and later from the University of Chicago.

With an estimated net worth of $31 billion, Li Ka shing is considered to be the richest person in Asia. He is a Hong Kong business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is the chairman at Hutchison Whampoa and Cheung Kong Holdings. Due to the untimely demise of his father, he was forced to leave school and work at a plastic company for 16 hours a day. Today, his business empire touches every facet of life in Hong Kong. Its operations are spread across 52 countries with more than 260,000 employees around the world.

Sheldon Adelson is an American business tycoon who made his fortune in Las Vegas doing casino and real estate development. He is the chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corporation. His net worth is estimated at $26.5 billion. He dropped out of City College of New York. He is the CEO and founder of Dell Inc., one of the largest PC sellers in the world. Today he is worth $15.3 billion. He dropped out of University of Texas at Austin to sell computers and in the process made a fortune for himself.

Paul Allen is best known as the co founder of Microsoft. He dropped out of Washington State university to work for Honeywell. He later convinced Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard to establish Microsoft. He is estimated to be worth $15 billion. He owns two sports teams, the Seattle Seahawks (NFL) and Portland Trail Blazers (NBA).

Franois Pinault is a French business magnate who runs the company PPR (now known as Kering). Many well known high end brands like Gucci, YSL, Converse, Samsonite, etc., come under its gamut. Despite having dropped out of high school, he is estimated to be worth $15 billion.

Best known as one of the founding members of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. His wealth is estimated to be $13.3 billion. He dropped out of Harvard to develop Facebook. He was a billionaire by the age of 23, making him one of the youngest billionaires ever.

Jack Crawford Taylor is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and founder of Enterprise Rent A Car. He dropped out of Washington University at St. Louis to join the US Navy during World War II. His lack of education was no hindrance on his path of success. Today, his net worth is $11 billion.

A Brazilian business tycoon who made his fortune in oil, gas, and mining, today Eike Batista has an estimated net worth of $10.6 billion. He went to RWTH Aachen University to study metallurgical engineering, but later dropped out. Today he chairs the Brazilian conglomerate, EBX Group.

Despite dropping out of the Syracuse University, Donald Newhouse went on to become a billionaire. He is one of the owners of Advance Publications, with an estimated net worth of $7.3 billion.

David Geffen is one of the founders of DreamWorks SKG. He is known for Asylum Records (1970), Geffen Records (1980) and DGC Records(1990). He had been to University of Texas at Austin but soon dropped out. His career had a humble beginning at the mailroom of William Morris Agency, but today he is worth $6 billion. He is also a prominent philanthropist.

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English businessman. He is the founder of the Virgin Group with more than 300 companies, including Virgin Airways. He suffered from dyslexia and hence dropped out of school at the age of 16. He was knighted in 1999 for his outstanding contributions in the field of entrepreneurship. His is estimated to be worth around $4.6 billion.

Micky Jagtiani is the owner of the Dubai based retail brand, Landmark, and has an estimated net worth of $4 billion. He dropped out of an accounting college in London, and drove cabs for a living before taking over his family shop after the untimely demise of his father and brother. Today, he has expanded his business in Middle East and Southeast Asia.

With an estimated worth of $ 3.8 billion, Dustin Moskovitz is the youngest self made billionaire. He is one of the founder members of the social networking site Facebook. He went to Harvard University but dropped out after 2 years to work full time with Facebook. In 2008, he left Facebook to co found Asana with Justin Rosenstein.

Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Indian conglomerate, Adani Group, is an entrepreneur and a self made billionaire. He dropped out of Gujarat University and began his career as a diamond sorter for Mahindra Brothers in Mumbai. Later, he started his own diamond trading company. From his humble beginnings he has come a long way. Today, he has an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion.

David Howard Murdock is an American businessman; owner of Dole. He had a tough childhood. He dropped out of school in the 9th grade and was drafted by the US Army during World War II. Despite all odds he went to become a successful businessman. Today, he is estimated to be worth $2.4 billion.

Subhash Chandra is often called the Media Mogul of India. He shot to fame with the launch of India’s first private television channel, Zee TV, and later the first private news channel Zee News. Today, this self made billionaire is worth $2.4 billion. He dropped out of high school when he was 12 years old.

Richard Li, the son of Hong Kong’s richest person, Li Ka shing, is worth an estimated $1.9 billion. He went to Stanford University to study computer engineering, but dropped out after 3 years for personal reasons. Life hasn’t been rosy for him always. To earn money he had taken shifts at McDonalds and even worked as a caddy at a local golf course. Today, he is the chairman of Hong Kong’s largest telecom company, PCCW.